Introduction to CyberMagick

The Internet is growing rapidly, and every kind of possibility is
making itself manifest. On one hand, the proliferation of gossip,
advertising, and mass media in cyberspace is a force that
increases the pressures of cultural conditioning, distracting the
average Internaut away from hir True Will or real potential. On
the other hand, the structure and resources of the 'net may
provide some tools to counteract those distractions and enable
the cyber-magickian to engage in self-directed deprogramming and
re-conditioning.

While there are some who maintain that the human-to-human contact found in offline ritual is
essential, I maintain that online contact offers an equal but different mode of interaction. The
millions of people who daily engage in cyber-sexual activities argues strongly that such powerful
experiences as arousal, excitement, and orgasm are easily communicated. Whether or not you
approve or engage in such activities, a quick tour of America Online's member rooms, the various
channels of IRC, the show-and-tell environment of Internet Phone or CUSeeMe, or the
proliferating numbers of "amateur" porn sites, is a good way to see how common online
eroticism may be.

I mention cybersex only as an extreme to illustrate how easily 'net participants can influence each
other. My main criticism of such activities, however, is that they are largely undirected
expenditures of energy and intent. There is a huge amount of communication and interaction
taking place, on all levels, but we have to ask, "What is the outcome? What are we creating
here"?

In an issue of the widely distributed, family-oriented USA Weekend magazine, the
physicist who
invented html and the Web was quoted as saying he believed the 'net was forming an artificial
intelligence. He's not the only one to have expressed that seemingly science fictional opinion. In
an interview in the prototye issue of
Paradigm Shift
a couple years back, Genesis
P-Orridge was
quoted as follows:

"GPO: One of the theories that we're working with is that there are four brains. DNA, if you like,
is the first brain, and we call that the Nanosphere. Then the individual human brain is the
Neurosphere. The group consciousness, the social or tribal brain, is the Kaosphere. Then the
Internet and all the computers which are, in a sense, at the moment, a whole. Literally a whole
brain is being built, it's not a metaphor for a brain, it actually is a brain. We call that the
Psychosphere. What we're really thinking about is when you plug in and go online, you're
plugging into all the brains of all the other people who've been there, some of those people being
psychotic and paranoid, some of them being into control, and some of them being very benign.
But it is not implicitly benign. Taking that further -- this is just a TOPI/Process/TransMedia
interpretation -- we suggest that when enough people believe in something, it becomes a deity. At
a certain point it can separate from its source and have an agenda of its own. It can physically or
psychically manifest separate from its source, which is originally the human brain. That's what's
going to happen with cyberspace. We're building a god, but we're building a god with the flaws
and the gifts of everyone on the planet almost -- millions of people -- with no real unified agenda
and no real dialogue about what the psychic and neurological and social and economic effect
really will be of that acceleration and separation of this larger brain. It will be the first all-
encompassing and contrived and constructed brain so far, that we know of."

When I first heard Genesis say that, I thought it was fairly provocative, but now, after years of
observing online "civilization," I am beginning to think that it is a fair model of the situation. As
integral parts of the Psychosphere, it is sometimes difficult to see how we interact with it -- a case
of not being able to see the forest for the trees, perhaps. Exploring how we interact can also
demonstrate how the Psychosphere "remembers" things and acts of its own volition. My own
observations have led to the following postulates:

Postulate #1: Every experience you have online affects you and changes you to a greater
or lesser
degree. (Just as in "regular" space, every impression that you take in changes you to some extent.
In the case of more powerful impressions, or ones that you resonate with, or ones that persuade,
induce, explain, etc., the action on your consciousness is obvious. In the case of more subtle
experiences, it is less so, but equally lasting on your consciousness. For instance, if you are in a
chat room and someone posts something relatively insignificant, then you are changed by the wait
for it to scroll by, the necessity of having to ignore it, or by a change or confirmation of your
general impression of the chat room. These small changes may be cumulative, or may have only a
small impact, but a change in your consciousness occurs nonetheless. Also, note the kinds of
indirect changes that occur -- if you are bored by something, you may communicate unconsciously
to others, by leaving a particular area or changing the subject -- if you are angered by something,
you may hold that in your own consciousness as muscular tension or other activity, which will
continue to change your own consciousness for a period of time, thus affecting your subsequent
actions. Likewise, if you are pleased or aroused or happy about something you encounter online,
that attitude, muscular release, change in consciousness continues. And, likewise, you respond on
subtle or unconscious levels to the subtle cues of others in this regard.)

Postulate #2: Every action that you make in cyberspace affects the Psychosphere
indefinitely.
(Other elements of the Psychosphere are affected by your actions as you are by theirs, as in
Postulate #1. The change in consciousness, however small or large, radiates out from your action.
If your actions or words project happiness, then that happiness spreads in ripples from that point
of action.)

Postulate #3: The memory of the Psychosphere is held in your nervous system and body,
and the
nervous systems and bodies of all other elements of the collective, as well as in the digital memory
of the computers. (Your own responses and changes in consciousness and physicality, as
described in #1 and #2, remain as a resource to the group consciousness, for better or worse. If
you are upset by something online, the Psychosphere will remember that upset for the time that
you are experiencing, no matter how long, and ripples will extend from that point and be
"remembered" in the consciousness/physicality of those who encounter the ripples. The ripples
themselves become archives of memory, spreading indefinitely, however dilute, through the
Psychosphere.)

Postulate #4: Deliberately changing your own consciousness and making
consciously-chosen
actions in relation to the Psychosphere can change the consciousness of the collective. (Any
"change in conformity with Will" will affect the Psychosphere just as any other action, as in #1,
#2, and #3.)

Postulate #5: Acting in harmony or conformity with your own True Will will have the
effect of
harmonizing or purifying the general consciousness of the Psychosphere. (In our bodies, a cell
that is operating in conformity with its own True Will, its genetic code and determined function in
the body, will tend to support and increase the comfort, effectiveness, and general health of the
whole. A cell that deviates from its True Will will inhibit the health and action of the whole, and,
indeed, may itself be considered a disease. Likewise, the elements of the Psychosphere -- us --
operating according to our True Will, in harmony with ourselves, will support the health and
comfort of the Psychosphere as a whole.)

Invoking the Psychosphere

With the concept of the Psychosphere in place, the idea of performing magickal ritual in
cyberspace becomes a little more apparent. Rather than beginning with the usual concepts and
tools of offline magick, we can begin to assemble ritual components from what is actually in front
us, the tools and realities of the online world, our computers, monitors, modems, phone lines,
software, etc.

When we conference in cyberspace, the group of people meeting in
one room or channel creates a web or network that spans a portion
of the planetary surface. Thus it is a web of points that
suggests a sphere. This semi-spherical web can fill a place in
our ritual analogous to the circle of offline ritual. The web
represents a microcosm of the entire Psychosphere and the human minds
that interact within it.

In the microcosmic webs of our conference room rituals, we can
isolate and invoke qualities, deities and mythologies just as the
offline magickian fills hir circle and mind with a specific
invocation. My hypothesis is that such invocation can produce
effects of synchronicity that can occur within the matrix of the
Psychosphere. Remember that the Psychosphere includes the minds
of humans that interact with it, and synchronistic effects may
seem to come from individual humans, or from the Psychosphere at
large. One may further speculate that if enough groups are
invoking a great enough variety of qualities, the synchronistic
effects may serve the purpose of integrating these qualities into
the Psychosphere, providing the total entity with a balanced and
holistic content and action. Taking that speculation even
farther, each group may wake the "intelligence" of whatever
quality they invoke within the Psychosphere, and enough groups
working on enough kinds of qualities may serve to wake the
totality of the Psychosphere. As the individual parts of the
Psychosphere, human minds and ritual groups, awaken to their own
True Will, perhaps the Psychosphere itself can find its own Will.

A Simple Method of Invocation

0. Isolate your conference area within the Psychosphere. That is,
shut off outside messages from non-participants, by whatever
means is necessary. Banish non-participants from the conference
area. Each individual can equally banish the environment of their
non-cyber location by banishing non-participants, turning off any
potential distractions such as television, stereo or telephone.

1. Each participant changes the setting on their monitor, if
possible, in some agreed-upon way, for instance, turning the
contrast up or down, making the image brighter or darker than it
normally is.

2. Each participant acknowledges their connection to the web by
typing an X on the common screen. When each participant has
completed this, the invocation proper can begin. This can be
varied to achieve a cyclic effect somewhat analogous to
circumambulation in offline ritual. That is, taking it
alphabetically by screen name (or whatever sequence the group
chooses beforehand to do this) each person can type their X in
sequence, and repeat the sequence in rotation.

3. The group breaks up into smaller units of two. Each member of
the smaller unit takes a turn projecting the quality that has
been chosen for the invocation at each other, as follows:

a) The person projecting first imagines distinct sensory
details of the quality to be projected. If that quality is,
for instance, Prosperity, then that person thinks about what
prosperity might look like in hir own life, what it might
sound like, what it might feel like, what it might taste or
smell like. As s/he achieves a pure mental state of each
sensory mode, s/he can send a private message to hir partner
with that sensory mode, imagining or experiencing that s/he
is projecting that sensory quality through the screen to hir
partner at the same time. For instance, s/he might type "See
Prosperity", "Hear Prosperity", "Feel Prosperity", etc.
Finally, when all sensory modes have been projected, s/he
types just the key word, for instance, "Prosperity". During
this, the partner remains receptive and imagines or
experiences that s/he is receiving these qualities from hir
partner. The partners then switch roles and repeat.
b) A variant on this uses polarities to intensify the
experience. If the quality chosen is one that can easily be
split into a pair of opposites, then the partners take turns
projecting those opposing qualities at each other. For
instance, if the ancient god Pan is being invoked, then the
polarity of "All-Devourer" and "All-Begetter" can be used.
In this, one partner projects the experiences of devouring,
running through the sensory modes as in (a). Then the other
partner projects devouring. Then the first projects
begetting, and so on, so that each partner has projected and
received each polar quality. Then the entire experience
"Pan" is projected first by one partner, then by the other.

4. The group then reconvenes and each participant projects that
quality that they have isolated into the common conference,
typing that keyword on the common screen and imagining or
experiencing that quality flowing and imbuing the entire
microcosmic web that the participants have created.

5. This completed, each participant again types an X, in sequence
if a sequence has been used the first time.

6. Participants return their monitor settings to their usual
mode. The working is then closed and the conference area should
be vacated immediately. Follow-up discussion can occur elsewhere.

7. The group may choose to upload a log of the ritual to a
central place for reference. Individual participants may wish to
add their own reactions and descriptions, in separate files, to
the same archive. In this way, groups can review past rituals and
decide what was effective and what was not, and thereby develop
this kind of ritual.

This suggests a very basic method of working with the
Psychosphere. More complex or more elegant methods are certainly
possible with this paradigm. Working a series of these rituals
through a microcosmic system such as qabala, tarot or I Ching may
provide a balanced and complete end result for the participants,
and a balanced offering to the Psychosphere. Devotees of pre-
existing traditions may choose to add their own quality or
mythology to the Psychosphere. That is, a worshipper of Shiva
may, in effect, become a priest of Shiva in cyberspace, a
mediator of the Shiva-nature of the Psychosphere.

Future Explorations

While I believe that text-based aspects of the 'net will remain a dominant mode of communication,
the cutting edge of interaction includes integration of video and audio into the mix of forms. As
yet, the magickal potential of videoconferencing remains largely unexplored. I am hoping, in the
near future, to conduct some experiments that make use of videoconferencing technology.
Anyone who is interested in participating in such experiments, who has the proper equipment (a
camera, microphone, soundcard, and freeware version of CUSeeMe), is urged to contact me at pstuart@aol.com.